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10 February 2006

Up until senior year in high school most of the music I listened to was filtered through my brother. Then I met the big guy. He introduced me to a whole new selection of musicians. I began listening to a different kinds of music. I had listened to Cream, Deep Purple, the Beatles and Crosby, Still & Nash. Then I met others like Black Sabbath, Uriah Heep, Boston, ELO, Aerosmith and the like. We began going to all kinds of concerts and having all kinds of fun. We added a new album to the collection almost weekly. Vinyl could be bought pretty cheaply back then - $3.49 for one record album, $6.79 for a twofer. I remember the store we frequented was called The Sound Room. The guy running was doing something almost unheard of in those days. He would actually let you listen to an album before purchasing it. He was way ahead of his time.

One of my favorites of the era turned out to be Rush. Getty Lee, Neal Peart, and that other guy (Alex Lifeson). Getty Lee's voice. Indescribable. Neal Pert's drumming. There's hardly anyone who can sit at the back of a set and pound it out as creatively. He is awesome.

A couple of my favorite songs I still listen to all the time are Red Barchetta and The Trees. Both are political forum songs. Red Barchetta is on the Moving Pictures album. The Album was released in January of 1981. It was inspired by an article written in 1973 by Richard Foster called A Nice Morning Drive. It was published in Road and Track. In the 70s and early 80s we had the gas crisis. Yes, it sounds like old news nowdays. But in 1973 we actually had gas rationing. You could buy gas on an even numbered days if your cars license plate began withan even number. Vice versa for odds. I remember driving, my 65 bug, Sundays on the 91 freeway, er parking lot, as it is commonly referred to now, my way back to Long Beach and having no one else on the road but a couple of other cars. You couldn't buy gas on Sundays at all, so you needed to own a small car. The song Red Barchetta said it all. We knew that eventually one day our cars would be confiscated. Little did we know it turn into the mess we have now. (Barchetta was built by Fiat.)

The Trees was on Hemispheres released in 1978. It is definitely an anti-union song. I was forced to join the retail clerks union in 1974. In order to work in a grocery store in California, for a major grocery chain, you had to be a member of the retail clerks union. So I paid a normal journeyman's weeks salary ($400 back then), as an initiation fee and then monthly dues, to stay employed. I wasn't a journeyman by any means, but hoped someday I would be. The union then guaranteed I could keep my 10 hour a week job and got me good medical benefits. The discussion of hours and benefits is really for a different post on a different blog, and I digress. This was about The Trees. This song spoke to me. It describes the methodology we were adopting back then. Big groups forcing little groups to comply, no matter what the cost. Sigh, it's only gotten worse.

Here's the lyrics:Red Barchetta

My uncle has a country placeThat no one knows aboutHe says it used to be a farmBefore the Motor LawAnd on Sundays I elude the eyesAnd hop the Turbine FreightTo far outside the WireWhere my white-haired uncle waits

Jump to the groundAs the Turbo slows to cross the borderlineRun like the windAs excitement shivers up and down my spineDown in his barnMy uncle preserved for me an old machineFor fifty odd yearsTo keep it as new has been his dearest dream

Well-weathered leatherHot metal and oilThe scented country airSunlight on chromeThe blur of the landscapeEvery nerve aware

Suddenly ahead of meAcross the mountainsideA gleaming alloy air carShoots towards me, two lanes wideI spin around with shrieking tiresTo run the deadly raceGo screaming through the valleyAs another joins the chase

Drive like the windStraining the limits of machine and manLaughing out loud with fear and hopeI've got a desperate planAt the one-lane bridgeI leave the giants stranded at the riversideRace back to the farmTo dream with my uncle at the fireside

The TreesWords by neil peart, music by geddy lee and alex lifeson

There is unrest in the forestThere is trouble with the treesFor the maples want more sunlighAnd the oaks ignore their pleas

The trouble with the maples(and they’re quite convinced they’re right)They say the oaks are just too loftyAnd they grab up all the lightBut the oaks can’t help their feelingsIf they like the way they’re madeAnd they wonder why the maplesCan’t be happy in their shade?

There is trouble in the forestAnd the creatures all have fledAs the maples scream `oppression!`And the oaks, just shake their heads

So the maples formed a unionAnd demanded equal rights’the oaks are just too greedyWe will make them give us light’Now there’s no more oak oppressionFor they passed a noble lawAnd the trees are all kept equalBy hatchet,Axe,And saw ...

About Robyn

I'm a SoCal gal interested in other things besides food. I like to fused glass, work with boro glass and take pictures. Spending time with family is my greatest joy and the chronicles tell that story.I use a Canon Digital Rebel Xti for all my photos and do very little editing.

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Ponder this:

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, 'Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?' Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. ~~ Marianne Williamson